


Memory Flashes

by guineamania



Series: DC TV-Verse One-Shots [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen, Injury, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-06-01 11:32:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6516835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guineamania/pseuds/guineamania
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone around him has begun to notice Barry's forgetfullness and irritability. Caitlyn is charged with investigating why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memory Flashes

**Author's Note:**

> This was written before I watched the latest Arrow episode

“How is he always late?” Joe exclaimed, pacing in the main hall of STAR Labs as he waited with Iris and Wally. They were supposed to be meeting to go for a family meal out now that Wally was a little more comfortable around Barry. The duo had sat down and talked and so now Wally saw a little bit of himself in the Flash. Now Barry hadn’t intended to tell him that but the speedster could not keep a secret to save his life. “He has super speed! How is he always late?” Joe continued to rant but neither West child was going to dare answer the rhetorical question. The wind whipped up around them and Barry raced in skidding to a halt.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Barry exclaimed, straightening out his blazer and checking that there was no fire.

“What was it this time?” Iris asked and red creeped up Barry’s neck.

“I just forgot, you know brain like a sieve,” Barry blurted out, ushering the three of them out of the door but Joe wasn’t being distracted that easily.

“You’ve been forgetting a lot of things lately. Are you okay?” Joe questioned, pulling Barry back to slow him down. Now his speed was increasing he was moving faster in everyday situations as well as when he ran.

“Yeah I’m fine. Just a lot of stuff on my mind at the moment,” Barry shrugged it off; Joe conceded for the moment but this wasn’t the end of this conversation. Barry had been forgetting a lot of simple things and everyone had noticed. He would set off on missions only to have to return to get his suit. He would forget to go to STAR labs after work and was always leaving files and evidence bags around the precinct. Joe shared a look with Iris and it was clear she shared his concern.

 

Barry was laid on the examining table but he would not stay still no matter how many times Caitlyn ordered him to. “It is just a routine check-up stop being so fidgety,” she exclaimed when he dislodged another one of the sensors.

“I’m fine. Joe and Iris are worried for no reason okay,” Barry sighed but Caitlyn was not having any of it. They had all noticed Barry forgetting things and becoming generally more irritable and had decided just to check him over. He was getting faster and no one had documented the effects of the speed force on the brain before.

 

“I think the speed force has been masking some of the damage caused by the lightning strike,” Caitlyn stated, striding into the main room where everyone was waiting. “I knew the lightning caused damage to Barry’s brain but I believed it all to have been repaired while he was in the original coma, but now I know differently. The speed force was unable to heal some of the damage so it just masked it so the body would think nothing was wrong,” Caitlyn pointed to slightly blurry parts of the scan that could easily be misinterpreted as a system error.

“What does this mean for Barry?” Joe asked, the doctor seemed far too up beat to be talking about brain damage.

“Well now that Barry has a handle on the speed force he should be able to try and use it to fix the damage,” Caitlyn smiled as Barry walked back in.

“So if I repurpose the speed force to only work in my brain it might be able to repair the damage to my short term memory. I’ll never get back the things I have forgotten but I can stop it happening again,” Barry explained as he emerged from the examination room, still buttoning up his shirt.

“So let’s do it,” Iris smiled but Caitlyn and Barry didn’t join in her celebrations.

“If Barry does this then until the damage is repaired he won’t be able to use the speed force. We’ll be vulnerable to zoom,” Caitlyn explained but Barry brushed it off.

“I’ll sort it,” he smiled.

 

“Hey, Oliver, it’s been too long. I heard things are pretty quiet in Starling … can’t your buddy Barry ever ring just to catch up, yeah okay … I need a favour.”


End file.
